1st Official Sewing Project

I started my sewing class about 2 weeks ago. It's once a week on Mondays. The first day of class we did some small little sewing "drills" so that we could look at them whenever we forgot what a certain stitch looked like. The second class we started to cut out our patterns & material and some of us began sewing together our first project - aprons! Our instructor let us know that our third class we would be skipping due to the MLK Holiday and to get our aprons as far along as we could prior to our next class because we would be starting our second project then (a robe). I finished my apron a few minutes ago and it's so stinkin' cute. I WAS going to use it in the kitchen but I don't want to get it dirty cause of how stinkin' cute it is, so it is now my crafting apron. Hopefully I don't get any paint on it! (how silly is that, I'd rather get paint on my clothes than on my shiny new apron!)

I also bought some really cute material for two gifts I'll be making (can you guess what they'll be?!). So off I go to start making those gifts...

Click image for larger view

Pay it Forward

Ok so I am not big on those statuses that go around on facebook where you're supposed to do something then copy/paste the status as your own. I don't so much care for the "spam" part of it and most of the time they are stupid wastes of time and I think they are annoying (to me, do what you please). A friend posted this one the other day though and I couldn't help but want to do it immediately.  

"Pay it Forward 2011: I promise to send something handmade to the first 5 people who leave a comment here. They must in turn post this and send something they make to the first 5 people who comment on their status. The rules are that it must be handmade by you and it must be sent to your 5 people sometime in 2011. Note...I get to pick what to make!"

I commented on her status then posted it as my own and got a flood of responses and a bunch of my friends re-posted it as their own shortly after. I decided I just can't stick to making only five people something - especially if they are making me something. So I decided to do a trade - you make me something (anything) and I will make something for you in return.

Here is my list of people I am making something for, and who are making me something in return:

1. Kallie Thorsen
2. Roy Jackson
3. Krystle Briese
4. Karen Woods
5. Jeremy Hustad
6. Alexandra Smith
7. Jimi Sepulveda
8. Sheena Menard
9. Candice Abellon

I will definitely post something about both what I am making and also what I receive and for/from whom. It's exciting to not know what people will be sending me and it's equally exciting trying to think of what to make for my friends. I know that the majority will get something homemade for their kitchen or dining rooms but a few will get something different - I just haven't thought of it yet!!

34. Acquire a sewing machine

A while back Craig's Aunt mentioned she had a sewing machine she didn't use and I could have it if I wanted it. About a week ago I asked her about it and it arrived on my doorstep via UPS today! I am excited to figure this particular machine out. I know a little bit about sewing from my Mom and was taught on her machines; this machine is slightly different but I think I'll be able to figure it out! Hopefully I can find a users manual online in the event I need some troubleshooting!!

October 2010 Project

Well as a part of my list to complete two crafts per month (#47) here goes my wrap-up for October 2010:
 

Unfortunately I only got one craft/project done for this month which is okay as it was a bit more time consuming than other crafts I have done in the past. Craig and I spent three solid weekends in thrift stores just to kill time during the days. We have so much fun finding all the interesting little objects in the stores (which we usually don't buy) and then we tend to find several items we've been on the lookout for, like this:

 We saw this on our first trip to one of several Salvation Army stores in our area, we happened to be there during their half-off weekend. The sticker price on this baby was $250. I pointed out the piece to Craig and we passed on buying it. Even with half off we thought $125 was still too much to spend. The following weekend we ended up in the store again and I didn't see this piece anywhere, it had been on my mind since first seeing it. The third weekend we went there ta-da this baby was still there! It was a half-off weekend again and the $250 tag was still on it. I called one of the workers over and told him I saw this 3 weekends in a row and the price was still the same - I checked to see if he could lower it any. We ended up buying it for $100 total. It was still a tad more than we wanted to pay but it was exactly what we were looking for for our kitchen/dining room. The weekend after we brought it home we ran to Lowes and bought some stain/sealer in one and started the re-finishing process...

 

 

I was surprised at how well this color stain matched our dining room table. I was very pleased with the outcome; however, I must let you know that this project is still incomplete...

...more to come, later.

B&A: Coffee Table

craigslist....I think that is the reason I married a Craig. 

Yea, that's what I am gonna go with cause I love craigslist so why wouldn't I fall in love with a Craig??

It's all so clear now! 

We found this awesome coffee table on craiglist for $125, bought it for $100 and after squeezing it into my ity-bity Celica with the hatch held open using four bungee cords - we got it home! I totally love this table, it's got a black velvet lined drawer on the top to display little trinkets under the glass and a deep drawer on two sides.  Only problem? it was hunter green...

 

So I painted it purple. :-)

Now all we need for our living room is some couches. The camping chairs (1st pic, left side) are getting uncomfortable! ....Oh!! We could use a maid too.

Second Hand

Here are some items I picked up at Goodwill & Salvation Army (same day). Overall total for everything was $20! Some of these I've already made-over (below) and some I will eventually make over so keep checking in.

 The largest frame in the back I ended up spray painting black and created a piece of art with some more recycled work materials. At my previous job we were able to order free yard samples of wall covering - I found this really cool zebra-esq paper and had no need for it professionally but I knew I'd want to make something of it. I also took a smaller sample and cut out a little heart to create more interest. It's all mounted on foam core cut to fit the frame. Took me about 20 minutes from start to finish.

I also spray painted the accordion wall pegs and some candle holders that I got second hand from my mother in law, they used to be an antiqued white (forgot to take a before picture of those, but you get the idea).

I have a new found love the Goodwill Outlet store - and it's right down the street! They sell items by weight and we found a few pieces of decent furniture, each needing their own mini-makeover for under $10 each (but did not buy). Although, be warned: you need a good amount of hand sanitizer and perhaps some pepper spray to feel safe!!

Slacking Off

So, I have this tendency to slack off on finishing projects (is this even news to anyone?). Its caused me to have way too many unfinished projects lying around, leaving areas of the house messy and taking up storage space. I spend money I shouldn't be spending on new projects because I get bored with the "old" (even though I really want to finish the old projects) or I'm spending more money on various things to finish the old projects without actually working on them more than a day or so. I have several years of scrap booking projects that I should finish before I forget what was going on in the pictures. I think that is the most important of the projects I'd like to complete (at least up until the end of 2009 - so that would mean I have 3 1/2 to 4 years of pictures to get into books, plus a few vacations). I also bought a various amount of beading supplies because I wanted to make this ring that a co-worker of mine wore (her friend made it for her). $35 in beads, another $40-60 in tools, and various donated supplies from my Mom later...it sits in a craft box waiting for me to have the patience to figure out how to make the thing. One of the wives of Craig's co-workers made me a little diagram of how to make the ring, I tried and realized I didn't have the correct beads for part of it. Got frustrated and quit. I will go back to it again, but I think I need to clear my head of ALL of the other projects I have running through it, sort of a "start fresh" sort of thing. Yet another project - a few years ago I made 3 pieces of art out of laminate flooring samples I got from work -they turned out really nice and my sister in law requested I make her one. I have everything I need for it except a tube of liquid nails and this simple thing is the only reason why this project has sat in my to-do for over a year.
I guess the whole purpose of this post is to get me thinking about which projects I have and which order to complete them in. This sort of goes along with my 101 Things in 1001 Days list too, if I can get these projects complete it will take care of about 5 items on that list. I am determined to finish these projects THIS year (at least that is my frame of mind at this moment in time). Now the question is: Which project do I take on first?
I am thinking of taking on the scrapbooks first as that project is the most far behind but it is definitely an overwhelming one to take on. The reason I want to do this one first is because Craig and I have been discussing a trip to Ireland and I know without a doubt there will be much to scrap-about. I wouldn't want to get even further behind after the potential trip so if I can get caught up before hand, then I'd be more apt to get that vacation book knocked out in a jiffy upon our return!! At the same time I could work on the art project for my sister in law - the glue takes a day or so to set-up and I would have to have the laminate pieces weighted down to the foam-core as it dries. It took me a good week to get the first 3 pieces done because of this. Just need to hit up the home improvement store now.

My goal in the next two weeks: At least begin the art project (hopefully finish it) and get to the next port on my cruise scrapbook (baby steps). I'll try to update.

Scrapbooks

I find that I get the urge to start working on another scrapbook before I've managed to finish the last one I started - this is a really bad habit that needs to go away. I will say I am one of the few people I know who has finished their wedding album. Although, I'd be lying because I have a few pages somewhere in the middle left undone and some writing that needs to be added here and there, but it is presentable as-is so I am telling everyone it's done. I also have our first year (the dating year) book done - with the exception of some things I want to change, some text I need to add, and a few things from about 2 months before our wedding. Ok, so that wouldn't qualify as "done"....it's just so close to it that I often forget that one isn't done. I have ONE page and possibly some text left for our honeymoon album and that book is fairly skinny so I am wondering if I should finish off the calendar year in that book or start a new one? It's a bit confusing to me where I should start and end my books. I think that's what causes me to stop working on them. It's not an excuse though because I could work on the pages and move them around later. I think it'd be silly to use an entire album for the last 3 months of the year just so that I can actually have "year books" after then. Oh decisions, decisions. I have a lot of books I need to get done so hopefully I can force myself to sit down and work on them. The only issue with that is that when I force myself to do it, they tend to not look as good. It's a mood thing I guess.

Here is what I have left to get done:
1) 1st year book - modify a few pages, add events in last few months before wedding.
2) Wedding - Finish/add remaining pictures/pages to middle of album, finish text.
3) Honeymoon - Waterfall pictures/page and text
4) End of 2006??? (maybe I'll tack this on to the 1st year book??? honeymoon book?)
5) Puerto Vallarta - start album
6) Cruise - Travel day and 1st cruising days are done, next: Haiti, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Cozumel and home)
7) Cabo - DONE (this one is a digital book, which I am still not sure I like)
8) 2007 - do
9) 2008 - do
10) 2009 - do
11) 2010 -do

Well.. lots to do. I don't like the digital albums for vacations and bigger events, but I am thinking about doing the 12x12 digital albums for the yearbooks - they are a lot skinnier and I can add to them as I take the pictures - no need to print anything until I get the entire book printed.. plus I can do individual pages and put them in a fancy album if I want to... we'll see. I want to get the vacation books done before the year books though - I have a TON of bright, tropical etc papers, stickers etc. so the sooner I get those books done, the sooner I have less scrap-booking supplies lying around.

Just whats on my mind. Maybe reading this later will push me to work on these.

Digital Scrap-booking Meetup

Well I checked off another item on my list:  "9. Attend a meetup for digital scrap-booking."

I have been interested in converting to digital scrap-booking for a while now and my mother in law bought me a 3 month membership and 8x8 storybook through Heritage Makers for my birthday in August. I am just now getting into it and will be activating my membership so that I have access to all of the fancy "papers" and embellishments. I had joined a meetup group for digital scrap-booking a while ago, not thinking it was part of the same Heritage Makers group and have had other things going on when they'd have meetups in my area, so I haven't been able to attend. They finally had one today at the Starbucks down the street from me so I decided to go to it. Last night I had been playing around with some pages trying to figure out the program on my own and did a pretty good job with the cover and five pages about our last vacation to Cabo San Lucas. When I showed up to the meetup, I met with two consultants and another meetup member who was getting a tutorial about the program. I sat down with one of the consultants and she began to show me how to use the program, I discovered that I knew more than I thought and she didn't have much new to teach me. I even showed her a few things I picked up on my own when I was playing with the program the night before. I guess the photoshop training I got in school paid off. The program they use is very similar to many of the features used in photoshop, although a lot of the short-key methods don't work - which is kind of annoying when I am used to using it that way...."ctrl+shift+v" works for some things but hitting "enter" when you're cropping doesn't work so you have to actually click "done" for it to work. Just a bit of getting used to.

The other consultants were at a loss as far as what they could teach me, 'cause I already knew more than they thought I did. The consultant that my mother in law purchased the gift from did teach me a few things and I can't wait to get started using the new techniques. They suggested I'd make a good consultant, too - I am considering it, but would prefer to have a steady M-F full time job before doing it. It would for sure be more of a hobby thing for me and I have plenty of friends who may find this way of keeping their memories useful. They also have many gift ideas and greeting card templates available!! I know I wouldn't be making enough as a consultant for it to be better than what I am getting through unemployment, plus there arent any benefits so that would be the deal breaker. Once I get a full time job though, I will consider this on the side. I know it'd be worth it because I could get all of my own personal projects done at a cheaper price, if not free. That in itself would be awesome!!

I will most likely attend more meetups with this group, they are fun people to be around and if they aren't actually teaching me anything about the program or products, I can actually get a lot of my projects done without distractions!!

Birthaversary Phase 2

We finished texturing and painting the walls for the room at my parents house. We were all moving a bit slower this time, but we did get it done pretty quickly once we got started. We ran into a snafoo though - when we peeled off the tape from the wall we had finished last time, the paint and some of the texture came with it. My Dad said he'll fix it before Thanksgiving.

Costume Construction

I was trying to think of what I could be for Halloween this year and like the majority of women I wanted to go with the sexy-wouldn't-wear-this-on-a-normal-day costume (aka excuse to dress slutty). I first thought I'd be a pimptress again because no one really saw the costume, I have zero pictures of the costume and I wouldn't have to spend any money on it because I still had everything I would need. After dabbling over this idea I decided I wanted to be a hooker, cause I have these really awesome boots I wanted to wear. Not your traditional hooker though - Pretty Woman was the thought. They don't sell her hookin' outfit in stores though so I had to make it!

I started in my closet. I had this hanes undershirt that was a bit aged and I didn't care about chopping up for my costume. It retails for about $5 at walmart if you wanted to go buy one.

I then went to a thrift store to find something to use as the skirt portion of the costume. I found this women's size medium stretchy tank top that was the perfect color and would fit around my hips nicely ($3). I of course intended on chopping this up too. I turned both the white tank and blue tanks inside out and very carefully marked with a sharpie where I was going to cut out the sides of the dress. Careful not to push too hard with the sharpie cause I didn't want the ink to seep through. I also left an extra 1/4 inch for seam allowance.

I found an old t-shirt clip from the 80's in my Moms sewing supplies. It normally has a bar through the middle but you can see where I cut it out so it'd work with the costume. I only found one so I decided to use it on the front and just sew the back.

With my Moms assistance I hemmed each piece and sewed it all together. I had to put everything on every so often to make sure things were lining up properly and I wasn't showing my undergarments to everyone while wearing it.

The finished product turned out pretty well. My only issue is that I have a sway back and it's really obvious in a tight outfit. There wasn't any way to fix or disguise this in the outfit. I might wear a mens white dress shirt over this though, cause it'll get cold.


Total cost of the outfit was $3 (about $10 if you don't have a tank and t-clip). I just need to get a wig now. I'll add pictures of me in the costume to this post after Halloween.

Update 01/01/09: I went to buy the perfect wig only to find out it was $40. No way. So I went without and it worked out fine (I am so glad Vivian's wig comes off in the movie!!) Here is the result:

Birthaversary Phase 1 (and stuff)

My Mom's Birthday is August 23rd, Dads is October 16th and their Anniversary is November 18th.

Craig and I thought it'd be awesome to do a "little" project to celebrate my parents "Birthaversary" this year. My Mom had surgery on her spine on Tuesday so we also wanted to spend time visiting with her and I really wanted to do something that would help her get her house ready for Thanksgiving company. We decided to texture, paint, and install base boards in two of the rooms in their house. We both arrived at different times on Friday night. I arrived sometime around  3:30pm and my bestest Krystle came over because she wanted to make her Halloween costume and we needed to get the materials! We went out to JoAnns, Starbucks, Jack in the Box and then finally back to my parents. My Mom was expecting two of her sewing friends to come over to visit her so this worked out perfectly, since my Mom wasn't able to do much, her friend Carol helped Krystle cut out the pattern for her costume. Once that was done my Moms friends left and Krystle, Craig and I all left to see Couples Retreat and to finally meet Krystles boyfriend, Angel (whom I totally approve of). We got home about 1am and went to bed.

The next day we started what is now called phase one of Birthaversary. Over the course of the weekend we textured a total of two walls and then painted them, painted the base boards and installed them on those two walls. My Mom loves it so far and that is motivation enough to finish the rest of this project before Thanksgiving. I will post pictures of the final product once all phases are done, as I don't want to spoil the before and afters.

In other news, my friend Laurel works at Warner Springs and said that she could get me a few days of work with her (paying cash) so I took her up on the offer and spent today packing boxes and boxes and boxes of GoVino wine glasses with her. Going from minimal activity to this sudden burst of constant movement, lifting, getting up early, staying up late etc... is taking it's toll. I am SO exhausted physically but mentally I am keeping myself moving. It's nice to have something to do during the day. I will be joining her again tomorrow for the same thing and possibly more times in the future. Apparently there are 5 more pallets of unfolded boxes that need folding and packing into the shipping boxes for orders that come through. It's a lot of standing and repetative motions with my wrists and arms but it's money. I am still unemployed though.

Kenidee's Project

I was so excited about how this project turned out and wanted to post it right away, but it was a gift for a friend of mine and I didn't want her to see any of it until she opened it up! I finished making these a few weeks ago and mailed out the package to her on Monday and she just got it today and opened it up. She really loved the gift and said she was in tears! This made me very happy because that was the reaction I was going for! A lot of my friends who knew I was up to something were interested to see what it was. So here is the project I made for baby Kenidee Oubre and her Mommy Nicole!

I got this idea from my friend Sheena, she added ribbons to a cute wall hanging she purchased to clip on all of the little bows girls end up with to keep them in one place, while doubling as cute art work for a little girls room. I just decided to make the whole thing from scratch!

..and of course not every hair accessory can be clipped so I just HAD to make a treasure box for all of those other little things girls need and love! This is the front and top of Kenidee's treasure box.

The back of the box.

And the inside with a mirror on the lid and a quote at the bottom that reads: "Follow your heart wherever it takes you, and be happy. Life is brief and very fragile and only loaned to us for a while. Wake up every morning with the thought that something wonderful is about to happen."

Of course Mom needs something to keep all of those little things in to remember how little her baby once was (cause unfortunately they don't stay little forever). So this is what I made for Nicole to put the hospital tags in, her first pair of shoes, bows, pictures and all of those little baby things!!

One side of the box reads "A Child is a Gift. A child to hold and cuddle, 'tis a gift from God above. And the world is so much brighter, when you have a child to love."

The other side reads "Nothing in life can hold more joys or more tears, can make you more proud or more tired, or give back more rewards than being a mother."

And inside the box reads "A mothers joy begins when a new life is stirring inside...when a tiny heartbeat is heard for the first time and a playful kick reminds her that she is never alone."


I love being crafty, especially when it's for someone else.